Shotgun blasts ‘caused damage of $17,854’

Press, 10 November 1983, Page 10

Shotgun blasts ‘caused damage of $17,854’

PA Auckland A young man shot at three people and held police at bay for three hours, the District Court at Auckland was told yesterday. He fired 80 rounds of shotgun ammunition and caused $17,854 worth of damage to cars and shops, police said. Before the Court was Joseph Niniha Simpson, aged 22, unemployed, of no fixed address, who pleaded guilty to 13 charges relating to the incident on October 27.

Simpson admitted robbing Mr Nigel Bale of a shotgun and cartridges while armed with a knife, four charges of discharging a firearm with feckless “ disregard for safety, two charges of wilfully damaging a building, four charges of wilfully damaging a motor-vehicle, one of unlawfully entering a building with intent to commit a crime, and one of attempting to use a shotgun with intent to resist lawful arrest.

Sergeant P. Hawke told the Court that at 5.15 a.m. on October 27, a “New Zealland Herald” security guard disturbed a man in a locker room. Several lockers had been searched and the man was later identified as

Simpson. At 2.20 p.m. that day Simpson went into the Queen Street sports goods store of Hewitt and Bale and asked the manager, Mr Nigel Bale, if he could see a number of guns. Simpson then requested ammunition for a gun he wanted to buy and when Mr Bale asked to see his permit, he pulled a stiletto from his pocket and held it to the manager’s throat, said Mr Hawke.

Mr Bale and other assistants and customers escaped from the shop. The first member of the public to arrive at Queen Elizabeth Square after Simpson had held up the shop was Mr Richard Westbrook who was delivering a load of soil. When he got out of his truck, Simpson left the shop and shot at him, said Mr Hawke. The shot missed but pellets landed in the back of the truck. Mr Kenneth Small was

next to arrive. When a shot shattered his car window, he was shaken but unhurt, Mr Hawke said that a member of the police armed offenders squad who was called in to talk to Simpson, Detective Derek Webb, was shot at twice. A plant pot he was sheltering behind stopped the pellets. Simpson caused $2650 worth of damage to cars and $10,480 worth of». damage to Hewitt and Bale’s shop. He also smashed the

window of an antique shop next door, Oba Gallery, and destroyed shelves and tenth century pottery to a total value of $7425. When the gunman was finally caught at 5.57 p.m. he tried to assault two

policemen with the shotgun. Simpson told police he had been drinking in a downtown bar where a. woman had given him some tablets which he took. He also found the stiletto there and only then decided to steal the gun, said Mr Hawke. Judge J. D. Rabone convicted and remanded him in custody for a probation report and sentence at the High Court on November 29.